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One day after returning from an embarrassing sweep in Oregon, where USC failed to play the defense it knows it must to win, its talented freshman shooting guard announced he was leaving the program. The Trojans held a team meeting that day, a Monday, when Bryce Jones said his playing time wasn't enough. And the players moved on. "He was a good guy, he left, that's what he wanted to do," junior forward Nikola Vucevic said. "We have to keep playing. " And get back to playing defense, or, as USC Coach Kevin O'Neill often says, "The only way we can win. " After a few days of intense practice, the Trojans did what O'Neill called "the best job we've done of following a game plan in a long time," and beat Stanford, 65-42, Thursday night at the Galen Center.

Both diabetes and obesity have increased across Los Angeles County in recent years, according to a report released Thursday by the county's Department of Public Health and the American Diabetes Assn. of Los Angeles. The age-adjusted adult diabetes rate increased from 6.6% to 9.1% between 1997 and 2007, according to the new report, "Trends in Diabetes: A Reversible Public Health Crisis. " Of the 650,000 people with diabetes in 2007, the most recent year available, about 90% of those with diabetes in 2007 had Type 2, primarily caused by obesity, according to the report.

Bad things happen to bad people in "2:22," a so-so heist thriller that rarely fulfills its genre-elevating ambitions. With a starrier cast and a more adept script, this noir-ish exercise might have beaten its derivative vibe and hasty contrivances. But as is, director Phillip Guzman, who co-penned with star Mick Rossi, doesn't engage the viewer much beyond the movie's visual sheen and its undelivered promise of villainous tension. An inordinate amount of the first act is spent getting to know four unpleasant career criminals (played by Rossi, Robert Miano, Aaron Gallagher and Jorge A. Jiminez)

The campus setting for "Room 222" was in a "Glee"-free zone, far from the "90210" ZIP Code. The classic comedy-drama, which revolved around fictional Walt Whitman High School, premiered in 1969 against the backdrop of the end of the civil rights movement and protests over the Vietnam War. Stories flowed between the concerns of students grappling with grades and their growing social awareness, and the struggles of a dedicated faculty trying to...

Harry Welch says he's not afraid of challenges or hard work. "I relish it," he said. In 36 years of coaching, from Canyon Country to Orange County, the 64-year-old Welch knows how to produce winning football programs. But he'll be facing his biggest test yet after accepting the position of head coach at Santa Margarita today, putting him in the tough Trinity League and in the most competitive football division in California, the Pac-5. "The challenge is exciting," he said.

They didn't just show up to see a movie, they wanted to live it -- and wear it. Some of the muggles came in maroon-striped scarves and school-uniform neckties; others donned capes and stuffed pillows under their shirts to give them the girth of a plump wizard. Many sported wigs, gray sweaters (despite the stifling heat), tube socks and, oh yes, wire-rimmed glasses. Lots and lots of wire-rimmed glasses.

CLEVELAND -- After another victory under his belt, Cleveland Indians starter Cliff Lee slipped on a T-shirt that said: Ace of Spades. Lee (22-2) won his 11th consecutive decision, leading the Indians over the Kansas City Royals, 12-5, Friday night. Lee's win streak is the longest by an Indians pitcher since Gaylord Perry won 15 consecutive decisions in 1974. Lee is the first pitcher to have 20 more wins than losses since Oakland's Bob Welch was 27-6 in 1990. Unbeaten since July 11, Lee is 5-0 in five outings against the Royals.

Among the things I admire most about Barack Obama is the way that he's able, without sounding wishy-washy, to capture issues in their full complexity -- to explain them not in the obtuse terms typical of so many politicians but in a manner that recognizes nuance, that allows for shades of gray. It's too bad that the same can't be said of John R. Talbott's "Obamanomics: How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics."

Rob Walker is 28, and his brother, Michael, is 23 -- young enough to dream of life away from home but old enough to know they don't want to end up anywhere else. The Walker men are farmers, just as their father was before them, as his father was and so on back to the early origins of Illinois. Seven generations of Walkers have farmed this land that hugs the Indiana border in southeastern Illinois, a familial thread that spans 222 years of American history. The first Walker, Thomas, laid claim to the fertile property along the winding Wabash River in 1786.